United States Ninth Circuit
Lahiri v. Universal Music & Video Dist. Corp., 09-55111
In plaintiff's counsel's appeal from an order by the district court sanctioning him for his five-year bad faith pursuit of a frivolous copyright infringement claim, the order is affirmed where: 1) had counsel, a self-described experienced copyright lawyer, made even a cursory investigation into the circumstances of plaintiff's 21-year old composition, he would have known plaintiff had no copyright interest in music he composed for hire; 2) counsel's repeated misrepresentations of Indian copyright law clearly evidenced his recklessness and bad faith; and 3) the district court carefully excluded inadequately documented costs, as well as taxable costs not included in defendants' bill of costs.
Appellate Information
- Argued 04/09/2010
- Decided 06/07/2010
- Published 06/07/2010
Judges
- Before HARRY PREGERSON and ROBERT R. BEEZER, Circuit Judges, and SUZANNE B. CONLON,District Judge.
Court
- United States Ninth Circuit
Counsel
- For Appellant:
- Curtis A. Cole, Matthew Levinson, Cole Pedroza, LLP, Pasadena, CA, for the movant-appellant.
- For Appellees:
- Russell J. Frackman, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, Jeffrey D. Goldman, Loeb & Loeb, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for the defendants-appellees.